Comments on the Netflix Throttling Story

As someone that has been following Netflix closely for more than 2 years, I'd like to comment on the story:

The story suggests that people come here to "share their outrage" which is wrong. I post news and information about Netflix and let people comment on each story. I get a lot of comments here from unhappy customers, but I also get a lot of e-mails and comments from people that enjoy the service.

Netflix and Blockbuster Online are both incredible values, even if they "throttle" or have movie allocation problems from time to time. I now have access to more than 50,000 titles from each company, and I typically pay less than $2 per online rental vs. $4.99 at my local video store. Both companies have gone through "growing pains," but they still save me time and money (I subscribe to both).

The study referenced in the story hasn't been significantly updated in almost three years. (Update: The site has been recently updated with additional commentary on the study, which was the first analysis that suggested a connection between usage and movie allocation). Netflix now has 37 shipping centers and has improved operations to handle more than 4 million subscribers.

The story features a subscriber with an admitted bias against the company and CEO (he recently suggested that Reed Hastings would kill people: "Q. What would happen if greedy Reed Hastings was in charge of human lives? A. People would die."). This user also typically rents only one genre of movies ("anime"), and is hardly a proper source for a major AP story like this.

I expect a lot more out of a story that is being seen by millions of people.

I know that a small percentage of Netflix subscribers are being throttled, but Netflix is upfront about why they do it and the reasons behind it are in the terms of service. If you are a Netflix subscriber, I highly recommend you read the section about "How Our Service Works."

I created this site as a way to share news, information and experiences with Netflix, but it I've expanded it to cover the emerging DVD-by-mail industry and companies like Blockbuster, Peerflix, Greencine, and more. If you look through the archives, you'll see many stories about topics of interest to Netflix subscribers, including throttling, the Netflix class action lawsuit, competition, and more.

Please feel free to read some of the stories and share your experience with online rentals here.

Update: The comment thread has turned ugly. I'm turning registration back on to hopefully cut down on the personal attacks.

TrackBack

» Depends on the Meaning of the Word "Unlimited" from DVD Dossier Blog: New Release Street Dates, Movie Reviews and Commentary
It wasn't exactly a slow news weekend. A British newspaper released a video apparently showing British troops beating Iraqi teenagers, ex-FEMA chief Michael Brownie Brown testified that he told a senior White House aide that Hurricane Katrina was going... [Read More]

Tracked on February 13, 2006 at 12:31 PM

Comments

We had the same experience with Netflix. It was great during their trial period and then began to take 4-5 days to receive a movie. We cancelled the subscription because we think the falsely advertised and created a false impression initially.

NetFlix originally had one shipping center, like GreenCine. If you lived anywhere but California, turn around was on the order of 8 or 9 days. They opened multiple shipping centers to provide better customer service (1 day shipping), and unfortunately they didn't foresee the problems it would create (people who'd see 1 day shipping as an opportunity to get 25+ disks a month), or perhaps they anticipated it, but seriously underestimated it.

I know that NetFlix provides excellent service because they provide more disks, more timely, and more affordably than GreenCine, and GreenCine is a good service.

IMO, all the complaints we're seeing are an interesting socialogical study of irrational behavior. It's strange that people can actually believe they're getting ripped off by the company that provides better service than their competitors, and at lower cost.

The are SCAM artists and should be severely PUNISHED with FINES. They REPEATEDLY LIED about doing it. Then silently changed there user agreements to reflect the fact that they do it. Incredibly they still FALSELY ADVERTISE the one-business-day CRAP. These executives are SCUM, in the same mold as those ENRON criminals. They should GO TO JAIL.

I canceled my membership to Netflix two years ago for their delaying shipments, I did not know at the time the delays were intentional. The longer I remained a member the fewer movies I would be shipped. I could never get a recent movie, it was always older releases, I was even shipped broken discs. Was this a part of the delaying tactic?. Probably so. Finally when I canceled and told them my reasons they hounded me daily with emails to ne-new my membership even telling me if I quit I could not get another free trial.

When something sounds to good to be true it usually is, Netflix is a prime example. They should come clean, advertise truthfully and let the chips fall where they may, or eventually their members, like myself, will catch on to their game and cancel their memberships.

Thanks for starting this site, the public needs to know about Netflix before they subscribe.

Mike, obviously Netflix sees this site as beneficial otherwise they would have sent you a C&D letter long ago and demanded the domain be transferred to them to protect their copyright.

I enjoy coming here, even though some times it can get a little monotonous.

I get a little irritated at times when I think about what I get compared to what is promised, but at the end of the day, I believe both services provide a reasonable value, even though both fall way short of their lip service promises.

One thing to keep in mind is for a long time NF blamed the post office for all the delays. We now know differently since they have virtually admitted to lying about the source of the delays with their new “policy”.

The key for any new subscriber is to be educated in that you will receive great service at first, which will tail off if you are tagged a heavy user. What compounds peoples frustration is that NF provides no clear definition of what is considered a heavy user.

I just read the article on the AP and this explains why my movies have slowed down. A friend and I were just talking about how slow Netflix just got.

Well, now I know....we both rent about 11-15 movies a month....we are likely being 'Throttled'...and I learn of it by reading it on the web.

I have also just started getting weird notes in my Netflix Queue about shipping dates. Sometimes it just says shipping "sometime"...for old non popular movies. And new movies say...very long wait...Throttled!

My friend warned me about Netflix's throttling before I subscribed. I couldn't believe him. After 4 weeks of super service, I was able to get only about 8 DVDs a month. I feel deceived and will warn all my friends about Netflix. (Let's see if those cowards at NF will send the Cease and Desist notice now.)

Everything you say is all fine and dandy... but it hardly explains some of the more bizarre and blatant throttling practices like:

Customer mails 3 DVDs back on the same day, but NetFlix acknowledges receipt of each DVDs on separate consecutive days, with the new DVD being shipped "tomorrow" (1 day after the delayed acknowledgment of receipt).

They can have all the fine print they want, but they're still dishonest. There's no possible way that 3 DVDs mailed back on the same day each arrive back to NetFlix on separate days.

I am a "heavy renter", and I never understood why Netflix took so long. I got so impatient waiting on the Alias series to arrive that, after several months, I went out and bought the series. I even contacted Netflix and inquired as to why the wait would be so long, but I never got a good answer, except to hear that I was "in the queue." I eventually quit because of the lag time.

I cancelled my netflix.com account a long time ago. Not that any of what I am about tell you will create mass cancellations and the ultimate down fall of netflix, but I am still in disbelief on how they can claim to have such a high customer service satisfaction record. When I first came across this site 1-2 years ago I was amazed and couldn't believe no one had come up with this idea sooner. I immediatley created an account and signed up for the $50+ 8 out at time plan. At first I had no issues. None what so ever. Until about 6-7 months into it. When i first signed up with Netflix I am fairly confident I took the minority approach in selecting my movies. Before movie one was even sent to me on the first day I went through there entire website and filled my queue at 500 selections. If I ever wanted a new release or a movie I had an inkling for I went and found it and moved it to the top of my queue.

So, like I said I had no problems for roughly 6 months, and I would recieve about 20 movies a week. Now I know this sounds like an astronimical amount of movies, but I wasn't really watching them all I was just copying them and making my own home library. I wasn't renting them out or even borrowing them out and I had black and whites, to kids, to silent, to blockbusters, to documentaries. In that 6 months though I had a few delays here and there with movies nothing ever more than 2-3 days, but I always had movies for the most part. Sometimes they werent even mine. I actually on a few occasions got someone elses movies that lived in the area. I actually drove them over to him after I got down copying them, but there was also about a dozen times I also recieved broken DVDs. Now I know basically cuz of the sheer volume of movies I was getting I would probably encounter these situations more than the average netflix user, but every time I didnt even need to send back the broken DVD b4 they sent me out a new one. I mean I eventually sent it back to them, but they always had a new DVD on its way before I could get them the damaged one back. SOunds pretty good so far right? Yeah I was loving life or atleast my movie life until blockbuster came out with their version of netflix. Now I am a consumer I am obviously going to check out your competition and see what they have to offer me correct? So I did and blockbuster had the same package for $14 dollars less and 2 free in store movie rentals. Now I didnt cancel or move immediatley I actually looked for a phone number to contact Netflix and see if we could work something out. Not anywhere at the time when I was a member did they even have a phone number on there web page. The only way of contact was through email. So i emailed and actually got a call or a phone number to call I dont member which, but I was on the phone with a netflix representative none the less. As I assumed they did not budge on their monthly fees or any other bargain to try and keep me from moving over to blockbuster. Yeah yeah babblign on a lil bit but trying to give you accurate details. Anywho, I opened up a blockbuster account free trial membership and was reminded of an old saying, "You get what you pay for." It was not uncommon for my rentals at Blockbuster to be 3 days apart on this trial membership. I canceled and made up my mind to stick with Netflix. It was like I didnt even leave blockbuster. My next three cycles of movies (24 total movies) took a month to get through. I was averaging 20 a week. On the last week of the month i called the number I had stored away to figure out what is going on. First representative, gave me the response of "blah blah we have more than just u as a subscriber and everyone needs there movies immediatley and blah blah and we are sorry for the inconvienance blah blah" Conversation ended with no conclusion I got hung up on. Reaction = Are you serious for someone that claims to have all-star customer service and I just got hung up on. O its on now. I call back.

2nd rep= "blah blah same as above but at the end gives me this piece of rope "lower paying subscribers get remailing priority"<--------WHAT! I mayb not be your bread and butter subscriber as far as revenue goes, but I make up for 3 of them and I am not on the top 100 movie queue nor New releases for every selection, but they get priority over me. What is my benefit than. What priority do I get for paying your top member fees besides 8 movies out at a time and in the past 4 weeks delivered to my door at about a 4 day interval.

Her response" I am sorry I understand how you feel blah blah blah blah. But what am I supposed to tell the other subscriber that we mailed yours out first because you pay more per month." <-----------Hold up wait. What are you supposed to tell the individual paying less than me per month?????????????????????????? What did you jsut tell me. I pay 3 x in monthly membership dues and u had no problem telling me that my business isn't appreciated. Why do u have an issue telling the guy that pays a 3rd of what i pay each month.

This went round and round for almost an hour basically ending like this. Fine I will try it for another month if it doesnt change I will cancel. I am sorry to hear that and I hope u dont cancel your concerns are valid and we appreciate your business.

In the following month i got 32 movies. In the last 2 months with netflix i recieved 56 movies ( i know hugee amount) but the 6 months prior to this I was recieving 2 and a half cycles a week or about 20 movies or 80 movies a month. So i cancelled with out any email, phone call or hesitation.

I dont know how much time had passed, but i recieved an email regarding the class action lawsuit. I read the whole suit, and surfed the internet for even more data on the subject. After all that I called netflix for 2 reasons.

1) To try and get contact information regarding the plaintiff. <----I got rerouted about a dozen times before I finally got to a voicemail box and left a message. Over the course of a month I left about 5 messages and never recieved a return phone call.

2) Discuss my situation in regards to there settlement offer to me.<-----------Their settlement was basically to give people a month of services in an upgraded plan but continue to pay their normal monthly fee. Example if you paid $9.99/month for 2 movies out at a time you would get one month at $9.99 but could have 3 out at a time. Ok well I paid $50+/month for 8 out at time and there is no package above that so what do i get out of this settlement. Do I get 9 out at time, 10, 11, 12, what??

word for word response= "I am sorry sir but since you were at the highest plan we have there is nothing we can do for you, and I know it may seem like you are getting shafted; well you are but I don't know what to tell you."

Now I know I prolly recieved more DVDs than anyone else affiliated with netflix during my membership and if I didnt I was probably in the top 5 for how quick I turned my queue over daily, and if I had to pay for them it prolly woulda costed me something around $10000 and I only spent about $400. But by me agreeing to pay the monthly membership fees it should be a safe assumption that I would be getting what is advertised by this company and not discrimanted against nor should any other subscriber based on volume or monthly dues. I didn't open a company and advertise unlimited monthly selection, I didn't advertise 1 day shipping, I didn't incorporate membership biases, and I didn't sign up for membership discrimination by paying the most and getting neglected in the end. I signed up to pay them a monetary fee for a product and service they offered & advertised to offer, and in the end because of the last 2 months and they way the settlement worked out I feel lied too, neglected, mistreated, unappreciated, and conned. Thats my story about netflix. Maybe u get something out of it maybe you don't, but with everything goind n around them lately I felt the need to share.

After I send back my next shipment, I am done. I plan to cancel my membership. I have simply had enough...

Co-Workers of mine somewhat new to Netflix comment on new releases that I have not seen, which is labled 'Long-Wait' in my queue and we all reside from the same distro center.

The only thing that will wake them up is if more users simply cancel their accounts for a few months, support your local Video Store. Then maybe the TOS of Netflix will change and stop screwing people. It does not make sense to hinder long term users, faithful and honest, to simply reel in more users.

A Class-Action cancel should be in order to hit them where it hurts (their pockets) and maybe the service will change for the better. But as long as users 'Deal' with it and continue to complain, but remain a member, they get what they want, and you don't.

I have been a Netflix customer off and on for about 4 year and consider myself a heavy-renter. I have found it very rare to find a relay in getting a movie. I estimate that I get 12 to 16 a month. I almost always get the movie the next day, unless it is being shipped from across the county.

I have tried other services and keep coming back to Netflix since they are the best.

Same thing happened to me.
I started my Netflix subscription 14 months ago. After about three months, every aspect of the process slowed way down:
1) when they claimed to receive my disks back.
2) the time from that, to when they would ship new ones out.
3) the time it took to receive the disks.

I complained numerous times, and they repeatedly denied it.

Here is the first denial reply that I received back in April, 2005:

"Hello Randy,

Thanks for your message.

Here is how we process and ship our DVDs:

We receive rental returns Monday through Friday, except holidays. We process nearly 100% of returns the same day we receive them. When we check-in a return, an e-mail is automatically and promptly sent to you to let you know that we have received your DVD.

Our goal is to ship you the DVDs listed highest in your Queue. We try to ship you DVDs from the distribution center closest to you so that you get movies quickly. Often, on the same day that we receive a DVD from you, we will ship the next available DVD from your Queue. In certain instances, your next available DVD will not ship until the next business day following our receipt of your returned movie. This can occur, for example, when your top choices are not available to you from your closest distribution center or the number of shipments to be processed by the distribution center on that day has been exceeded. When this happens, your DVD will ship on the next business day and may come from an alternate distribution center."

We went back and fourth several times, and they finally somewhat admitted it:

"In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service. As a result, those members who receive the most movies may experience next-day shipping and receive movies lower in their Queue more often than our other members. By prioritizing in this way, we help assure a balanced experience for all our members. Those that rent a lot of movies get a great value and those with lighter viewing habits are able to count on our service to meet their limited needs."

I think this is reprehensible. I joined NetFlix years ago, and this hasn't happened to me. I consistently have the maximum DVD number in my queue (500), plus many DVDs that are awaiting release. I live in Orlando, and have been fortunate enough to receive my DVDs in a timely manner ... about 5-8 per week sometimes! I am on the 5-out programme and have never had a problem with them.

I did try Blockbuster to see if they were faster, and immediately put 36 DVDs in my queue. I had a free one-month trial with them, and received only THREE movies in one month!!! It took them over a week to get me my first DVD. I was so disgusted I cancelled the membership as the trial was about to expire. Horrific experience there, but I will have to say I'm lucky to have NetFlix. I have been very impressed with them, and I am so very sorry to hear about anyone who has had an issue with them. :(

I am on the 1 out plan, and 3 months into being a customer. I have always had a movie shipped on the day Netflix acknowleged receipt of my returned movie, and that movie has always arrived the next day. However, my last movie was not checked in the following morning as usual, it took an extra day. Perhaps the throttling has started for me.

I did the math when I signed up, and figured that a movie a week would be a decent bargain for the $10 and change I'm paying a month once sales tax is included. Actually, it's been 7 movies a month so far, so I have yet to feel slighted.

It's unfortunate that Netflix saw fit to lie to their customers, because it can be a tough reputation to live down. Having been part owner of a business in the past, I know that honesty & integrity go a long way. One can gain much trust and respect by being honest, even when the answer is not to the customer's liking.

Netflix also makes it a point to somehow obtain single-sided disc copies of boxed sets. This means that the 3-disc boxed set you can purchase in any store, will be a 6-disc rental with Netflix. Don't believe me, compare the number of discs in, say, Quincy Season 1 & 2.

I can't add much that hasn't already been said. I cancelled my membership as soon as I realized what they were doing. I don't care if what they offer is still a good value even with throttling - and I would debate that because by the time I got to see a new movie it would be running on network TV.

What I care about is doing business with people with integrity. Netflix has none. They have proven that by consistently advertising one day delivery and deliberately failing to deliver.

It's almost as bad as justifying a war with some country by claiming they have WMDs when you know they don't. I don't want anything to do with people like that.

My analysis is more like a research paper than some ongoing blog. I have tried to keep the original paper unmodified and only ad a few errata here and there. Today I posted a new postscript. AFAIK all of the primary points are still valid. The study existed to prove Netflix was allocating based on usage and let me comment on areas they could make improvement.

I was a netflix customer way back... Same experience as most, it was great at first (lived in Calif then) but the huge slowdown due to the single distro point came about the same time as I moved to AZ so I cancelled thinking the delays would only be worse.

I don't follow the day to day netflix saga but I do like to check in from time to time and see if the state of the union has changed.

One big point I don't see anyone mentioning is Netflix's goal in all of this. Bad press, angy customers, lawsuits, you'd think this might move their management to make some changes. I don't think you're going to see any. Netflix is called Netflix because that is what their goal is. To be on the cutting edge of movies on demand via broadband, that's why it isn't called moives-by-mail.

That being said, from their point of view it makes perfect sense to just ride out these rough times. Put as much capital in the bank as possible and keep as many subscribers on the hook until they can shift off the dvd media. A good reason for throttling, feed the 50 new fish paying a higher intro rate vs maybe pissing off 5 old time subscribers that came on board when rates were cheaper. They actually make money by losing older subscribers.

Once they can move off the dvd most of their service oriented problems will be gone.
I don't know when this will happen but it's close enough in future that it isn't worth the money to try and fix any of the current problems.

I totally agree with both camps.

Is Netflix basically a good service at a good price? Yeah.

Do they provide all the service that they say you're going to get. No.

Is their paradigm to take care of long term customers paying for premium level service. No.

But given the company name is netflix, you should remember that every dvd they ever mail is probably seen as a necessary evil.

After being throttled (sounds like something my mother used to threaten to do to me) and being put to the back of the bus on new releases (very long wait), I finally decided to cancel. After chasing the loop on the website to try and cancel I finally got thru on a phone line and was harrased by the rep and threatened that I would not be able to re-start my membership, etc. if I quit. The only reason you have this alleged low cancel rate is because they put people in an endless loop when they try and cancel and they give up. It took me 45 minutes to cancel. Netflix has the ethics below that of a junkyard dog. Whenever I hear Netflix, I simply say- don't give them your credit card info.

I have been a member for several years and have been throttled for the last couple at least. I had breakfast with a couple who told me their Netflix deliveries had been deliberatly slowed down. Up till then, I assumed it was a lax post office but then I could see there was a pattern involved.

In protest, I tried Blockbuster but barely got a movie a week and dropped them very quickly.

On the whole, I have come to terms with the throttling but the AP article's revelations that the new films are purposely held back does get me steamed.

I've decided to throttle my suggestions to friends and co-workers that they should subscribe to Netflix.

Just as a comment. I've used them for years on and off. Each time I sign up my rentals come quicker at first. Then they slow down. They say the DVD's will arive in one day then it takes like 3. And then 3 or 4 for them to recieve it. I upped my subscription to adjust for this though. I think that is what they hope we will do. Now that I realize this I think it is unfair. Why not be up front about or up the cost instead of trying to slip something by me. I just don't like the way they've handled it.

LAURA? Breaking the law? Are you serious? Before DVDs were invented one could go to there local Kmart, Wal-mart, Pamida, Target and load up on VHS tapes to record movies from TV, sporting events, TV-series or whatever you wanted with your VCR from TV. Nowadays its Illegal? to do that same activity, but yet you can buy DVD recorders, dual DVD recorder machines from these same corporations, and if thats not enough you can walk into your local best buy store and buy DVD burning software. HMM? What warrants this being called illegal. Movie corporate mogul giants that are loosing maybe 10 cents on the dollar because of the minute population that create there own home libraries cuz they are sick of the overused politically correct term for greed "inflation" to justify ridiculous overpriced items. I am not making a profit off of it. I am not making my movies available to the world. I am not on limewire offering downloads for selective movies to mass populations. THis whole DRM b******* that microsoft invented is for the birds. Xbox live you have to pay a fee to use. Xbox owned by microsoft in essence. PS2 same service same game different owner Live option for game play = FREE for there customers. For you to tell me that this is illegal is just as stupid as credit card companies telling individuals they need to sign the back of there credit card for it to be a valid card. Because A) apparently driver's license dont have an adequate signatures on them & B) when a thief steals your credit o look theres a perfect template for them to practice your signature. Illegal huh?

You dont think netflix knew that somebody recieving 8 movies one day and had them shipped back to them the very next day was doing more than just watching them? Point blank I dont care what any body sais I feel it incredibly retarded for someone to tell me that what I did was illegal.

But on to your point of me basically taking advantage of Netflix. Maybe I did because of the sheer volume I was recieving, but that is what they offered and advertised I would get for my money. You can't change the deal after services have been paid for or finalized. If thats the case then I want pro-rated fees. Or allow me to escrow the membership dues then and each time I feel you throttled me or whatever then I dont release the whole amount. And if you want the whole amount than live up to the end of the bargain. Or make a daily credit card charge and days they dont live up to there end of the barging they dont get paid. I mean just like Randy posted above I remember those emails. I also remember recieving emails saying my DVD's were recieved and not seeing another email for 2-6 days saying my new DVDs are being shipped out. Your telling me that out of 500 selections on my queue to choose from it took sometimes a minimum of 48 hours to find my selection package it up and ship it out. Sorry those days you dont get paid. I paid for you to ship my product that i paid for in a timely fashion. Not for you to procrastinate and help ensure a positive bottom line. And if my usage of your services in any way is affecting your bottom line than you should have thought about that possiblity before you offered that plan or service. I mean there was some thought put into the plans, estimate, theories and they came up with $50 amonth for 8 out at a time. If $50 wasnt going to cover it than dont offer it only to piss me off in the future cuz you didnt put enough planning or thought into what you were doing.

That's what I mean. They are so dishonest about the whole process. Just like the White House. Tell me what your silly movies cost to rent and I will rent them this way because it is easier. When you lie, I don't care what you are selling; I will go elsewhere.

Holy crap, Im not going crazy, i knew they were limiting my rentals. Anyway, i have been trying to get over 13 movies a month with the 3 out at a time and netflix is surely "throttling" me. Its impossible!! Why not just give a max movies per month, not this throttled "unlimited" crap. Its Crapp like this that MAKES me want to put on my eye patch again.
arg!!!!

Wow, here is what I read!
Few customers have complained about this "fairness algorithm," according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Hastings said the company has no specified limit on rentals, but "`unlimited' doesn't mean you should expect to get 10,000 a month."
A CEO with a math problem! 3 movies X 31 days = 93 possible movies might (very unlikely) be rented. Maybe it's just a slight exaggeration.

I'm one of those who is being throttled. Personally, I do feel that Netflix is a good value even being throttled, but I AM unhappy about it. As soon as my queue is emptied, I will be cancelling my service with them if I don't start getting things in a reasonable time again. Currently, I'm lucky if I'm getting 10 a month. What's in my queue is all I really want from them that I can't wait a little longer and watch on the premium channels I pay more for anyway.

What angers me more is that it was obvious they were doing this but they lied about doing it. When caught they blatantly lied saying they weren't doing it, but silently changed things to accomodate the fact that they are. It's a glowing example of what is wrong with corperate america/capitalism. This is coming from a small business owner, I might add.

I can't say that I blame them for doing what they do, but that doesn't mean it's right. When you advertise something and say something publicly you take the good with the bad. What am I suppose to do with my DSL users? I've got several that use a bandwidth ratio of 20:1. Am I suppose to start throttling them because they are constantly transferring data? If I were to do that I would start getting a bad reputation which would effect my customer satisfaction. In high tech you have to take the good with the bad, that's just fact. The bad is usually less than 5% of the whole base and a company that size can stomach it better than one the size of mine. The bad publicity that netflix is getting right now is a perfect example. Last time we were checked we had a 98.7% customer satisfaction. I wouldn't risk that just because I have a few users that are using more than their fair share of bandwidth.

Well, I guess my four season 24 binge got me throttled. I canceled my subscription because I was waiting so long for movies I ended up going to the Blockbuster store. Hey, what do you know? I'm now getting movies from them online. Just lost a customer Netflix. I can't wait until Apple hands you your a$$.

The bottom line is that Netflix is dishonest. They are making money by lying to people. Their ads promise unlimited rentals, but they limit the rentals. They also practice a bait and switch tactic. Oh sure, they mention this in the fine print, but not in the radio and TV ads.

This may be legal, but it is immoral.

They also lie to you. I emailed them. They gave me some line about the post office, and refused to admit any responsibility for the delay in my movies.

The Netflix staff should be ashamed of themselves. I quit Netflix and signed up for Blockbuster. They may not be any faster, but they do give free coupons for the store.

We all need to tell all our friends and family NOT to use Netflix. They need to feel it in the pocketbook

To me the most obvious deception I have seen from Netflix is when I returned from a business trip to find 4 movies at my house, I am on the 4 at a time plan, they were all mailed from my local distro center 45 miles away and upon opening them found 2 of the 4 discs completely broken in half. I reported them damaged right away but to be honest they had been in my queue so long that I didn't really still want to see them so I told them not to send a replacement, meaning they would not send the next 2 in my queue until I returned the broken ones.

I watched the other undamaged movies and sent them back, but I tried an experiment, I sent two discs in each envelope. One damaged disc and one not damaged disc per envelope. Two days later I get my confirmation e-mail that they received the two undamaged discs, but nothing about the broken ones that were sent in the same envelopes? Two days later they sent confirmation of receiving the broken discs, WTF.

How is that possible? I would love to know. It is underhanded crap like that, that really gets me, the discs were broken and yet they punish me for it by not acknowledging their return for an extra two days?

"We are always making improvements to ensure you receive your movies quickly. As part of this process we like to ask our members how we are doing from time to time. Please tell us your delivery experience for Jem & The Holograms: Seasons 1 & 2: Disc 3 (1985), which was shipped to you on Thursday, February 09, 2006 by clicking on the appropriate link below."

Oh and look, it came today (the 10th). THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! I wanted it hand delivered yesterday! Netflix sucks, im cancelling! [/sarcasm]

They can't have a high satisfaction rate. My account is flagged with a normal rental of 8-10 movies per month. I called in a few months back to complain and they flat out told me they will "throttle" you when you rent more than 6 on the 3 at-a-time program. They have since changed their service agreement, but they never sent out the notice that the agreement changed either.

The CNN article misses several crucial facts. People like that guy in the suit are rare that try to say "Hey, they told me unlimited." That is true, but it's what they do to people that try to watch three per week being labled as, what they told me, "high needs customers."

Netflix should just come clean, admit their mistakes, talk to their customers about how their profit margin works, what they will do in the future, tell customers when they change the service agreement, etc. They haven't though and that's why there are several people very upset with the company. I have five friends and a brother on Netflix. We have all been throttled and we are all upset. That's 100 percent, not the high satisfaction Netflix claims. I know we aren't alone either.

sniperwon, you can try and justify it all you want, it's still illegal. And by saying "Point blank I dont care what any body sais I feel it incredibly retarded for someone to tell me that what I did was illegal." shows your lack of intelligence. Back in the day when you recorded with VCR tapes, you couldn't go tape to tape with a rented VCR tape, they were protected. Radio-shack sold a in-line decrypter, but it was still illegal.

My comment, I've been with Netflix over a year now and I too have noticed it slowing down. But on the 2 at a time I still get at least 10 a month and sometimes as many as 18. At 10 a month for $15 a month beats the $5 per rental at the local Blockbuster. I also tried Blockbusters mail service, but they don't have a warehouse in Hawaii so it was way to slow.

I rented the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith right when it was released. The release day it was placed from the "Saved" to my "queue" and I received it the next day. And that's in Hawaii, so, not bad.

My overall feelings are, Netflix is a good service, but they should be sued for claiming "unlimited", if it's throttled, and they admitted that, then it's not unlimited.